My female tawny has been sitting tight on her single egg and I do not think we are going to have any more. She would have laid again now, if she was going to. She has hardly left the box, so has started incubation straight away. This means the egg will be due to hatch sometime on the first weekend of April, hopefully! As she is now incubating, the female is dependent on the male bringing her food. He does not seem to be over generous, with a single appearance every night, apart from Tuesday night, where he did not appear at all.
I got up this morning hoping he had been, as the female was obviously very hungry and eagerly awaiting his appearance. As it gets dark, her ‘kee-wick’ call can be heard from my house. It was not until gone 2am that he appeared this morning and she was very keen to meet him to receive her breakfast… a very large frog!
I just love the vocalisation between the two of them! Watch her reaction when she hears the male calls from outside the box. Also listen carefully for the purring, clicking type call he makes as he gives over his kill to her….
Tawnies often feed on frogs and, as it was a foul rainy night, I would imagine it was an easier prey than a vole or mouse. This frog was too large to eat whole and she took it out of the box to eat. Talking to Dave Culley about this, he said that his females would do the same with large prey such as this.
Let’s hope the male starts bringing more than one food parcel per night… I will be watching and keeping you up to date with this wonderful unfolding story!